Two years after it suddenly shut down operations, the Washington Chamber Society has settled claims of creditors. “And so a listener who put down more than $500 for two subscriptions to the announced 2002-03 season ended up receiving a refund check for $19.07 — more than two years later.”
Blog
A Whole New Experience In TV
“TV over Internet protocol – IPTV – will transform couch-cruising into an on-demand experience. Instead of broadcasting every channel continuously, service providers plan to transmit them only to subscribers who request them. In effect, every channel will be streamed on demand. This will free up huge amounts of bandwidth for hi-def TV and high-speed broadband. Add IP and you get interactive services like caller ID on your TV. And the system will be able to track viewing habits as effectively as Amazon tracks its customers, so ads will be targeted with scary precision. Put it all together and you’ve got television that’s as intensely personalized as 20th-century broadcasting was generic.”
Most Expensive Furniture Ever
An antique cabinet sells at auction for £19illion, making it the most expensive piece of furniture to be sold at an auction. “The sale broke the cabinet’s own record price of £8.5m when it was bought at Christie’s in 1990. The Florentine furniture was made between 1720 and 1732 for Henry Somerset, third Duke of Beaufort.”
PEN v. PEN
Disputes are ripping apart the British writers’ association PEN. “In one camp are the ascetics, who believe that PEN’s only purpose is its traditional one of working selflessly and frugally for persecuted writers around the world. In the other are the modernisers – decadents, say their critics – who envisage a rather more glittering future involving celebrities and media events. In both – as you might expect – are some of the most sharp-tongued people in Britain. The reluctance by those involved for the fighting to be made public is, for others, a further reason to be bitter.”
Taiwan President Pledges Support To Guggenheim Branch (With Conditions)
The president of Taiwan says he’ll endorse building a branch of the Guggenheim Museum on the island if his party wins in parliamentary elections this week. Critics assailed the president’s promise, calling it campaign rhetoric. “Taichung city council earlier this week rejected Hu’s proposal for a Guggenheim branch, citing insufficient funding. The mayor intended to seek the central government’s help to save the project.”
Movie Morals Police: Back To the 1930s
Some groups are protesting the movie “Kinsey,” claiming that the movie glamorizes someone they blame for weakening American morals. “Such organizations don’t really care about “Kinsey” – an art-house picture that, however well reviewed or Oscar-nominated, will be seen by a relatively small audience, mostly in blue states. The film is just this month’s handy pretext for advancing the larger goal of pushing sex of all nonbiblical kinds back into the closet and undermining any scientific findings, whether circa 1948 or 2004, that might challenge fundamentalist sexual orthodoxy as successfully as Darwin challenged Genesis.”
Hipper Than Thou
“The origin of hip (and its partner, hep; the words are related) is, unsatisfyingly, unknown. The term first appeared at the turn of the 20th century, and quickly became widespread. Its meaning at this early point was “aware; in the know,” and it was not widely used by African-Americans. It wasn’t until the late 1930s and early 1940s, during the jive era, that the modern senses—”sophisticated; currently fashionable; fully up-to-date”—arose.”
Is Your DVD Player About To Be Obsolete?
“Tech writers are bracing for a VHS vs. Betamax-style format war, with consumers forced to choose sides or buy two separate, incompatible players. Last week’s stumping for HD-DVD, which is sponsored by Toshiba and NEC, can only be read as a pre-emptive effort to make Sony’s Blu-ray look like Betamax 2.0—a technology that’s doomed to fail because all the movies you want will only be available on its competitor. If Hollywood makes that story come true, consumers won’t get a happy ending.”
Changing Patterns In NY Theatre
How are people deciding to go to the theatre in New York? It’s changing: “Our research shows if you’re a young person in your 20s and you want all New York has to offer, you read Time Out New York or The Village Voice. In other words, the Times is less important, and nothing beats word of mouth. Well, one of the things we’re interested in is how to build word of mouth as news coverage shrinks.”
Mixed Year For Arts Funding In Congress
How did the arts make out in the US Congressional session just closing? Well, the extra $18 million President Bush requested for the National Endowment for the Arts got cut to $2 million. But also Congress ignored Bush’s proposal to cut $35 million from arts in education funds. So a mixed result… And things arenh’t likely to change much in the new Congress…